American Heroes Series - 01 - Resurrection (25 page)

Ethan nodded in agreement, watching his son at the counter paying for a big bottle of soda and an assortment of smaller snack bags. “Olivia is a year older than he is,” he snorted softly. “I wonder if he likes older women?”

Cydney cast him a baleful glare but she was grinning. “Don’t even think it.”

He laughed at her expression. “Considering how I react to you, he might react the same way towards your daughter. He has my genes, after all. They react strongly to yours.”

“You’re awful,” she sniffed.

He was enjoying teasing her. “Oh, être des jeunes et dans l'amour.”

She looked up at him with a lifted eyebrow. “Et oh, être le père d'un jeune garçon avec les hormones de raging et non contrôle automatiquement.”

Ethan’s smile vanished and his jaw dropped. “You didn’t tell me you spoke French.”

She grinned at him. “You didn’t ask.”

He put his hands on his hips and gave her his best suspicious look. “How in the hell do you know it?”

She laughed softly. “I work in a world-class art museum. Don’t forget that French is the common art language all over the world; sometimes I have to deal with international art galleries and if they don’t speak English, they definitely speak French. It’s come in very handy over the past eleven years.”

He pursed his lips into a flat line. “Il y a aucuns autres secrets que vous voulez me dire?”

Her smile faded as she gazed up at him.  “We’ve only known each other seven days, Ethan,” she said softly. “Every day will be a day of discovery for us. There are lots of things you don’t know about me simply because we haven’t had the time to discover them yet. But in answer to your question, no, I don’t have any secrets in the least.”

His mock irritation fled. “I know, honey,” he said for her ears only. “I really wasn’t mad. I’m just perpetually amazed at your talents.”

She winked at him. “I know you weren’t really mad,” she whispered as Tyler finished paying for his booty and headed back in their direction. “And I also know something else.”

“What?

“That you weren’t calling the front desk earlier about rental cars.”

He tried to keep a poker face. “Why do you say that?”

“Because I could understand a word here and there. You said something about a store, although I didn’t catch all of it. What’s the big secret?”

“If I wanted you to know, I would tell you.”

“Are we going shopping somewhere expensive and fabulous?”

He clapped a hand over his face. “Do you mean to tell me that I can’t even connive or scheme without you knowing everything? Christ, I’m going to have to learn Spanish now.”

Her hazel eyes twinkled at him. “Vaya el derecho adelante. Puedo comprender eso, también.”

His face went slack with shock. “Oh, no way….”

“Did I mention that my minor in college was Languages?” she said innocently.

Tyler was upon them and they were distracted from their conversation.  Ethan looked at all of the junk food and shook his head.

“Ty, you had a big breakfast on the plane right before we landed,” he knew it was of no use to point it out but he did anyway. “What’s up with all of that crap?”

Tyler ripped open a bag of red hot jelly beans. “I’m hungry,” he said simply.

Cydney just grinned as Ethan shook his head and looked around for J.D.. The man wasn’t long in coming and within a minute or two, stepped off the elevator with the other two special agents in tow.

 Special Agent John Daniels and Special Agent Woody Penryn had been introduced to Cydney before they boarded the flight from Los Angeles but the two had stayed silent and out of the way the entire trip. They were young, only on the bureau for a couple of years, and on their first overseas assignment. With J.D. Dickerson and Ethan Serreaux leading the team, they were somewhat in awe of their surroundings. Dickerson and Serreaux were well-known agents in the Los Angeles bureau with solid reputations. This was the big time.

A limousine was waiting this time, big enough for everyone to fit in to.  Cydney climbed in first, followed by the men except for Tyler. He wanted to ride with the driver again.  When the doors slammed, the driver pulled out and onto the Boulevard de Magenta. Cydney once again sat in between Ethan and J.D., oblivious to the fact that Special Agent Penryn, having been unobtrusive during the entire trip, was now checking her out.  She was more interested in watching the city pass by.

But Ethan was aware; when he realized that Special Agent Penryn seemed to be taking an interest in the woman seated next to him, he shot the man such a withering look that it was all Penryn could do not to open the door and leap from the car just to get away. One did not provoke the wrath of Serreaux and live to tell the tale.

***

“Right there. See her?”

Joseph was straining to catch a glimpse of what Nat was talking about. He had parked the car so far away from the Paris Police Head quarters that it was difficult to make out features on people walking in and out of the massive building, which emulated a French palace to a certain extent.  The light gray stones and severely gabled roof were both elegant and imposing.

“No,” he squinted. “Where?”

Nat was sitting in the driver’s seat of their rented Vauxhall sedan, sunglasses on as he casually pointed. “Right there, in black,” he said. “She’s just stepping up on the curb. There are about four or five agents with her.”

Joseph squinted a moment longer before nodding his head. “Yes,” he said slowly. “Now I see her.”

“Then our contact was right,” Nat said with satisfaction. “Olivia is in the station. Now the FBI and her mother are here to get her.”

Joseph sat back in his seat and puffed out his cheeks, both wearily and in anticipation of what was to come.  He scratched his head, a gesture of uncertainty.

“So when to we enact this plan?” he asked, not particularly excited about it.

“When Olivia comes outside,” he said. “It would be stupid to try anything while she’s inside the station, obviously. We need to wait until she comes outside.”

“All right,” Joseph looked away from the station, out over the Paris street that was busy with people going about their day. It was clear that there was much on his mind. “Nat… I’m not sure this is such a good idea.”

Nat never took his eyes off the police station. “Why not?”

Joseph rolled his eyes with frustration. “Because this whole plan is going in directions that were never originally intended,” he looked at Nat.  “We were just supposed to get the Robe; that’s it. Now there’s a whole new element to this that is taking on really ominous tones and it all centers around that damn tooth.”

Nat looked at him. “What are you worried about? You will still be crowned. The tooth is for Wildegrav.”

“And the girl, too?” Joseph gestured angrily. “After you told him about that crazy idea of yours, he bought it. He liked your idea of cloning.”

“The possibilities are staggering.”

“They’re crazy.  That’s not what we had originally planned.”

“Plans change.” Nat looked back at the police station. “We’re supposed to have back up here but I haven’t seen anyone I recognize. We’ll just have to assume they’re here. Our contact was supposed to arrange it.”

Joseph just shook his head at Nat’s changing of the subject, completely disagreeing with everything that was happening. “Who is this contact, anyway?”

Nat remained uncommonly cool considering what was about to go down.

“A watch commander with the Paris Police,” he said. “A man extremely loyal to the church and to His Eminence.  Wildegrav says he has been a faithful servant for years.”

Joseph sighed. “Whatever,” he said. “Look, just give me a chance to get near Olivia before you start shooting. I want to be able to grab her in time and I don’t want to get hit. I don’t want her to get hit, either.”

“She won’t,” Nat said steadily. “I’ll be aiming for the agents around her.”

“Don’t hit the mother, either.”

Nat wriggled his eyebrows. “No, definitely not. She’s quite beautiful.”

Joseph cast him a long look before turning away again and gazing out of the car window. He wasn’t focused on anything in particular except the scheme looming on the horizon.

“Thank God Coral is already at the train station,” he muttered. “Why in the hell is she still with us, anyway? We don’t need her any longer.”

Nat’s dark eyes watched everyone coming in and out of the station in the distance. “She’s money, pure and simple. Don’t so easily cast her aside; she has financed a good deal of your quest for the throne.”

“It’s not my quest; it’s my family’s quest.”

“But the throne is yours.”

Joseph lifted an eyebrow, his gaze taking on a distant, displeasured, look. “Yes,” he said slowly. “It’s mine. All of this is mine.”

The conversation was interrupted by Nat’s cell phone. It rang once and he hit the answer button.  Joseph listened disinterestedly to his one-word replies until Nat finally hung up the phone. He pulled his sunglasses off and began cleaning them.

“It seems that we are to create a diversion,” he said casually.

Joseph looked at him. “Diversion?”

Nat nodded. “That was our contact inside the prefecture. We need to create a diversion out here and he’ll take care of Olivia for us. It seems she is surrounded and a covert extraction is our best option for success.”

Joseph sighed heavily, shaking his head. “What in the hell does that mean?”

Nat was watching the front of the building.  When he didn’t reply immediately, Joseph looked to see what had the man’s attention cornered. He was staring at the building as if seeing something no one else could.

Nat was a genius, a psychotic mastermind, and someone that Joseph feared more than he respected. His family had served the d’Orleans family for three hundred years. On this particular venture, since the days before the opening of the Resurrection exhibit, Joseph was getting more than he bargained for.  More and more, he was feeling reluctant to see the mission through. It had been his family’s dream, not his personal quest. But this quest had already been costly; he was fearful just how costly it would eventually become.

“I have an idea,” Nat finally murmured.

Joseph looked at him with some trepidation. When Nat had an idea, it usually involved violence and death. 

Joseph’s reluctance grew.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Olivia ran at her mother and hit her so hard that she knocked her over into Ethan, who had to grab them both to keep them from falling over.  Olivia wept hysterically in her mother’s arms while Cydney, surprisingly, kept her cool.  He held her daughter tightly and whispered in her ear, over and over.

“It’s okay, baby,” she murmured. “You’re safe now.  You’re safe.”

Christophe had been walking with Olivia down a carpeted hallway but Olivia had bolted ahead of him when she saw her mother.  He came up behind the hugging pair, extending a hand to J.D. because Ethan’s hand were full at the moment as he tried to keep the women from toppling.

“Inspector Dulay,” he introduced himself with a smile.

J.D. shook his hand. “Special Agent Dickerson,” he indicated Ethan, Daniels and Penryn, in that order. “Special Agents Serreaux, Daniels and Penryn.  And that woman being mugged is Cydney Hetherington, Olivia’s mother.”

Christophe smiled as he watched the pair. “I would have never guessed.”

By this time, Ethan was able to release the women because they were moderately steady. He extended a hand to Christophe.

“C'est un plaisir pour vous rencontrer,” he said; his French was very rapid and very comfortable. “Merci pour tout vous avez fait.”

Christophe shook his head. “C'était mon plaisir. Elle est une fille douce.”

J.D. interrupted. “No offense, gentlemen, but this sounds like the United Nations and I don’t speak the language nearly as well as the two of you.”

Christophe laughed softly as Ethan grinned. “Sorry,” Christophe replied, indicating a door just a few feet away. “Shall we go in and sit?”

Daniels and Penryn went with Christophe into the small but comfortable interrogation room, followed by J.D. Ethan lingered behind with Cydney and Olivia as they fiercely embraced. He put his hands on them both gently.

“Come on, ladies,” he said softly, trying to steer them towards the room. “Let’s go sit down.”

Cydney whispered soothing to Olivia to get her going and they moved into the room. Ethan, with his wide-eyed son, went in after them and closed the door.

Cydney and Olivia sat on the couch with Tyler while Ethan, J.D., Christophe and the two other agents sat around the table and chatted.  Most chatter was about the case but nothing in-depth because of the three civilians in the room. But within several minutes they had wasted enough time and were at the point where they needed to get down to business.

 Ethan was dreading this moment, mostly because he knew how Cydney would react.  Since she wasn’t directly involved with the details of the case, she would not be allowed to be in the room while the FBI questioned Olivia. He stood up and went over to the couch where Olivia sat cradled in her mother’s arms.

He knelt next to the couch, smiling at Olivia when the girl looked at him with her red-rimmed eyes. She was calm now for the most part and he put his hand on her knee.

“Olivia,” he said gently. “I know you answered a lot of questions with the Paris Police, but I need to ask you some questions now, too. Are you up to it?”

Olivia hiccupped and nodded, wiping at her nose. “Yes.”

He patted her knee. “Good girl,” he looked at Cydney. “Can I talk to you outside a moment?”

Cydney nodded, kissing Olivia on the forehead as she released her.  As Cydney walked from the room, Ethan pulled Tyler from the couch and made him leave with them.

When the three of them were in the corridor, Ethan shut the door to the interrogation room quietly and sent his son down the hall to the vending machine.  Alone with Cydney, he stood very close to her and lowered his voice.

“We need to speak with Olivia alone for a bit,” he said, cutting her off before she could protest. “The reason is simple; she may say things to us that she wouldn’t say if you were in the room. You’re an emotional crutch for her and in her current state, she’d be focused more on you than on us if you were to stay in the room. I need for her to focus on me right now because we really need to figure out what happened. I promise I won’t let anything happen to her and I promise I’ll try my best not to upset her too much. Okay?”